SOUTHLAKE—Granite Properties recently announced that it's bringing a big project to Southlake. The Plano-based firm will develop a seven-story, 160,733-square-foot office building adjacent to Southlake Town Square (SLTS). GlobeSt.com's Anna Caplan recently caught up with Granite's director of development/construction, David Cunningham, who has been working with the city of Southlake for a number of years to bring the project to fruition.

GlobeSt.com: How did Granite's involvement with the project come about?  

Cunningham: We have targeted a Southlake presence for over 10 years, and have always preferred to be co-located in the Southlake Town Square because of its rich amenity base. SLTS is the heart of activity for this area, and we have talked with Cooper & Stebbins many times over the years about being the class A office partner in Town Square. The recession and the massive Highway 114 road construction project which started in 2009 shut Southlake off for five years, so we are just now back to where we were in 2007 when we were last working on this project.

GlobeSt.com: How will the new project be similar to other Granite buildings?

Cunningham: It will be very similar in quality, design and finish…it will just be a bit smaller at 160,000 square feet in the first phase.

GlobeSt.com: What is it about Southlake that makes this project an attractive deal?  

Cunningham: Southlake is a great place to live and to work. It has a super-high quality of life, the highest per capita income in the Metroplex, it's home to hundreds of decision-makers and has one of the top school districts in the state. It's also starving for true class A office space, which is what Granite specializes in. Having said that, it's a small market, and the Southlake Town Square will be the best location for this limited marketplace.

GlobeSt.com: How will the office building impact Southlake Town Square in terms of traffic/how will it complement the area?  

Cunningham: In terms of 'traffic,' not at all. The office components will be located on the Highway 114 frontage. Traffic to and from the office buildings will have direct ingress/egress to Highway 114, with no need to load other areas of the district or any city streets. Once there, Granite's occupants will be able to walk to over 1 million square feet of hotels, restaurants, retail shops, doctors' offices, dentist offices…and if you so choose, you can buy a brownstone and live there as well. It's a true live/work/play place…a suburban, urban node desired by most tenants. In terms of benefits, it will deliver up to 500,000 square feet of class A professional office space to a market wanting and needing it. That's 2,000 jobs…and restaurant patrons, hotel patrons, shopping patrons, etc.

GlobeSt.com: How many tenants will the building likely fit?  

Cunningham: It's almost impossible to say because it's based on tenant size…but using Granite's 'average' tenant profile with a mix of tenants, we would expect around 15 to 20 tenants in each 160,000-square-foot building, and maybe 45 to 60 new tenants in all of the buildings we hope to build.

GlobeSt.com: What kinds of floor plates will it have?  

Cunningham: Nominally 26,000 rentable square feet per floor.

GlobeSt.com: Any retail components?   

Cunningham: Partially within the building will co-exist a 9,000-square-foot full service restaurant. Cooper & Stebbins also plans additional retail within the development, which will share the Highway 114 frontage master plan which will be built in concert with the office project.